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HomePod will add multi-user support, Ambient Sounds, and live radio this fall

2019 September 11

by RSS Feed

During Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this year, the company confirmed that the HomePod would be getting a handful of new features, including multi-user support. While that was initially expected to arrive with iOS 13‘s launch, it looks like HomePod owners will be waiting a bit longer.

Apple has updated its landing page for the HomePod, highlighting the important changes to feature rollouts.

It turns out that Apple will be staggering these new additions to its first smart speaker by just a bit. First up, launching on September 30, will be adding support for live radio stations. HomePod owners will be able to ask Siri to tune into a favorite radio station from the likes of iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and Radio.com. Apple says this supports 100,000 radio stations across the globe.

Ambient sounds are coming to the HomePod, too. Apple’s landing page for the smart speaker say the feature will arrive “later this fall”, with no specific date to circle on the calendar. Here’s how Apple describes the feature:

Finally, a personalized experience with multi-user support. We know that this feature will be able to recognize up to six individuals, with each request from a different person offering up a personalized response from Siri. This feature is set to arrive “later this fall” as well, but, again, no exact launch date.

Together with Siri, HomePod can learn and recognize up to six different voices and create a personalized listening experience for everybody at home. So when they say “Hey Siri, play some music” they’ll get a mix of songs customized just for them — picked from Apple Music based on their listening history and personal preferences. And with Personal Requests, they can access their own messages, reminders, lists, and calendars, and make and receive phone calls.

It’s a shame that these features won’t be available with iOS 13’s launch on September 19, but at least they’re still coming at all, right?